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L.A. Noire
L.A. Noire is a game developed by Team Bondi in conjunction with Rockstar Games and published by Rockstar Games. It was released on both Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 May 17, 2011 in North America and May 20, 2011 in Europe and Australia. On June 23, 2011 Rockstar Games announced that the game is in developement for the PC and will be released in autumn. Setting L.A. Noire is set in a nearly perfectly recreated 8x8 square miles of Los Angeles" of 1947, with players being given an open-ended challenge to solve a series of crime and murder mysteries. As the title suggests, the game draws heavily from both plot and aesthetic elements of film noir - stylistic films from the 1940s and 1950s that shared similar visual styles and themes including crime, sex and moral ambiguity and were often shot in black and white with harsh, low-key lighting. The game uses a distinctive colouring-style as well as the choice of black-and-white in homage to the visual style of film noir. The post-war setting is the backdrop for plot elements that reference the detective films of the '40s, such as corruption and drugs, with a classical jazz soundtrack. Gameplay L.A. Noire's gameplay is similar to that of a crime game and an action game. You play as Cole Phelps, a police officer returning from WWII, solving cases by looking for clues and interrogating suspects. By solving crimes Phelps ranks up among the police ranks from a normal officer all the way up to a homicide detective. The game allows players to play at their own pace, allowing them to simply cruise around the 1940s Los Angeles. L.A. Noire also blends in an action component, allowing players to get into gun fights and car chases. Player's health isn't displayed on the HUD, instead when Phelps takes damage, the screen fades into a black and white tone. Avoiding damage reheals Phelps. Plot Amid the post-war boom of Hollywood's Golden Age, Cole Phelps is an LAPD detective thrown headfirst into a city drowning in its own success. Corruption is rampant, the drug trade is exploding, and murder rates are at an all-time high. In his fight to climb the ranks and do what’s right, Phelps must unravel the truth behind a string of arson attacks, racketeering conspiracies and brutal murders, battling the L.A. underworld and even members of his own department to uncover a secret that could shake the city to its rotten core. Using groundbreaking new animation technology that captures every nuance of an actor's facial performance in astonishing detail, L.A. Noire is a violent crime thriller that blends breathtaking action with true detective work to deliver an unprecedented interactive experience. Search for clues, chase down suspects and interrogate witnesses as you struggle to find the truth in a city where everyone has something to hide. Cole Phelps starts out as a cop working the beat, along with inexperienced, but capable, partner, Ralph Dunn. Together, they arrest a number of criminals and stop a bank robbery. When Cole investigates the murder of Everett Gage, Captain Donnelly of Homicide takes notice of Phelps when he catches the murderer, Edgar Kalou. Donnelly is impressed and has the Chief promote Phelps to Traffic. While in Traffic, underneath a friendly Captain Leary, Phelps is partnered with Stefan Bekowsky and the two become friends. While first there he meets both Roy Earle and Herschel Biggs. The two solve a number of cases including hit and run, attempted murder, robbery etc., where the encounter the more violent and villainous side of people including child pornographers and rapists. While in Traffic, it's revealed that Cole doesn't like using his gun. After killing criminal Leroy Sabo, he admits it doesn't get any easier for him to kill. After a string of successes, Leary promotes Phelps to Burglary and later Homicide and Phelps and Bekowsky part as friends. After veteran cop Floyd Rose retires, Phelps is partnered to Rose's old partner, Rusty Galloway. Galloway takes an immediate dislike towards Phelps, especially for his quick promotions. The two first investigate the murder of Celine Henry, which is erriely similar to the murder of The Black Dahlia, Elizabeth Short. Galloway believes it isn't and that they would have caught him by now. However a lot more murders come up and are similar- all are women with drinking problems, all have some sort of message on them and all have some jewellery missing. Rusty is defiant they're all husband killings and the pair are forced to arrest people whom Cole sometimes think are innocent. The police also receive messages and poems, supposedly from The Werewolf, but Rusty believes it's a copycat killer. Later on, all the men the partners had put away were innocent and it was actually all done by The Werewolf, who framed them. He leads Phelps and Galloway on a game of cat and mouse throughout Los Angeles, leaving clues for them to solve. They eventually track him down to a church, where he's revealed to Garrett Mason, a bartender whom they met earlier. Phelps chases him and is forced to kill him. Donnelly says he will silently release all the suspects before their trial, but the killers identity must never be revealed because of a family status. Phelps is then promoted to Vice. Phelps is partnered with crooked cop Roy Earle and they investigate the overdose of two black musicians on army surplus morphine. This leads them on the trail of a huge supply of morphine stolen at San Pedro. They learn that mobster, Mickey Cohen's brother in law, Lenny Finkelstein is distributing the morphine. They hunt him down as he is killed in a gunfight and the two discover all the morphine but deduce that Lenny didn't steal it but took it of someone's hands. Phelps and Earle have a strained relationship and dislike each other because they disagree with a lot of things. This is eccenuated when Earle gets angry when a boxer reneged a fixed fight and he lost a lot of money. Earle only does the case so he can get his money back. Later, they investigate the murder of two other musicians and a recent club owner, who was in Cole's former army unit. While investigated the case, Phelps has an affair and sleeps with German singer, Elsa Lichtmann. Earle exploits it for his own benefit. Later on, they realise Mickey Cohen is killing all members of Cole's unit who was on the boat where the morphine was heisted, but he believes the robber will crack sooner or later. It's revealed that Courtney Sheldon a squad member, was in on the morphine heist which went bad when people started dying from Cohen's distribution (Sheldon wanted to use it in hospitals). Sheldon's also involved with Dr. Harlan Fontaine who took the morphine off his hands. Phelps was close to breaking Sheldon, but was suspended because of his affair and demoted to Arson. His wife kicks him out and Phelps lives with Elsa. Phelps and Earle rarely see each other afterwards. Phelps is now under command of short tempered Lachlan McKelty and is partnered to reluctant Herschel Biggs. They don't get along at first and Biggs is ignorant towards Phelps. They investigate two family fires, in which one is killed. They discover both won contests to go to Catalina Island, run by Elysian Fields who are part of the Suburban Redevelopment Fund, headed by Leland Monroe. They are planning on building homes for returning GI's and contest prizes are an incentive for those who are reluctant to move. Phelps believes whoever refuses to move, Monroe has their houses burnt down by an unknown arsonist, thought to be involved with InstaHeat. Once they arrest the worker with mosquito coil and a criminal record, they are still suspiscous. After another fire on a GI home and a reluctant family, they discover the GI homes are poorly build with bad bricks and cement. They interview Monroe, who has a seemingly legitimate answer to everything. They know that something is up with Elysian Fields. Cole tries to get Elsa to get Jack Kelso (part of Cole's unit who hates him) from California Fire and Life to help him. Cole is warned by Earle to stay away from Elysian Fields. Kelso discovers that the houses are built from movie set wood and that Monroe, Fontaine, his boss Curtis Benson, the mayor Fletcher Bowron and the District Attorney Donald Sandler, amongst others, are involved in the Redevelopment Fund. Kelso is attacked by Monroe's thugs but manages to escape. While recovering in hospital, assistant DA, Leonard Petersen approaches Kelso with a job offer and Kelso agrees once Petersen agreed to investigate the Suburban Redevelopment Fund. He interviews Benson who finds out about Bensons bribery and the large amount of insurance on the houses. While investigated further in The Hall of Records, Kelso is shocked to discover Courtney's name is on the Board of the Directors. After being attacked again by Monroe's goons, Kelso manages to shoot them all. Kelso approaches Sheldon and berates him. Sheldon finally reveals about what happened with the morphine but is also shocked when he learns about Fontaine's involvement and about himself as a director. Kelso tells him about the insurance Suburban will claim, but Sheldon refuses to believe. After finally agreeing to help Phelps himself, Kelso gets a call from Leland Monroe who wants to meet him but Kelso refuses. Monroe tries to coax him, saying he'll make him rich. Kelso laughs it off but says he might go around to Monroe's Mansion. Suspecting a trap, Kelso gets a few army buddies to storm the mansion with him. They kill a large number of Monroe's men, but Kelso is shot in the arm by Monroe's secretary. Kelso makes his way to Monroe's office and shoots him in the thigh. After searching his office he finds more stock certificates, Monroe's payroll, which includes Earle, and a list of people holding out on selling. Biggs calls Kelso and reveals that Elsa has been kidnapped by the arsonist and that Courtney was killed by Fontaine after asking too many questions. Monroe begs for a doctor, but Kelso forces him to give up the arsonist. Monroe tells him Fontaine had power over the arsonist and made him do all the fires, but doesn't have his name. After leaving, Monroe crawls to the phone to call for help. Earlier, Elsa met with Fontaine and tells him she knows about the death of her friend, Lou Buchwalter, who died building the houses that Kelso found out were poorly made and that Fontaine is working with Monroe. Realising she knows too much, Fontaine knocks her out and he prepared to kill her. However she is saved by the arsonist who comes in and strangles Fontaine and takes Elsa away. When Phelps and Biggs find Sheldon's dead body, Earle arrives saying it's his collar. Cole loses his temper and threatens Earle with death. Phelps happily revealed that his corrupt life is drawing to a close, but Earle just laughs. After finding out the arsonist is a bug sprayer, Kelso manages to track down where he lives. He discovers the arsonist is insane and is actually a former member of his unit- Ira Hogeboom, a flamethrower man. Phelps and Biggs investigate the murder of Fontaine and find a stash of morphine, papers that indicate that people dying in the fires attracting too much attention. They also discover Monroe's and Fontaine's scheme- it's not about insurance. The government will be building freeways in the path of new houses and the government will pay off the improved value of the land. Since the houses are worthless, Suburban nets millions of dollars. Meanwhile, Kelso finds out that Ira's holding Elsa in the sewers and enlists Phelp's and Bigg's help. They help defend Kelso from crooked cops trying to kill him and the trio head to the sewers. Petersen is unable to stop all of the men on Suburbans payroll from following them in the sewers. Kelso gets into a large shootout with all the men before finding Elsa. Ira had been sent by Cole to burn a hospital in the war, which made him lose his mind. Fontaine helped him and he helped Fontaine, although he never wanted to kill anyone in the burnings. Ira asks Kelso to put him out of his misery, to which Kelso does. The water is rising rapidly, and Phelps manages to get Elsa and Kelso out, with the help of Biggs. A huge current sweeps towards Phelps. He utters a simple "goodbye" before it swept him away, killing him. At Phelp's funeral, Earle speaks for Phelps, to a saddened Elsa's disgust. Earle said he was wrongly accused in the department scandal. He then calls Phelps "a good friend", before shaking hands with Petersen. Biggs says that Cole was never his friend. Kelso responds that they were never enemies, to which Biggs says that he thinks Cole knew that. Development L.A. Noire was originally a PlayStation 3 exclusive title. Brendan McNamara who previously worked for Team Soho, departed from his original company which developed the largely successful crime game The Getaway. Team Bondi and Sony Entertainment Studios had a falling out and Rockstar Games, developer of the hugely successful Grand Theft Auto series and Midnight Club series announced that L.A. Noire will be developed for the home consoles, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, despite originally being a PS3 exclusive. L.A. Noire was originally meant to be released during 2007 but was delayed, then announced to be released in 2008 and 2009 and delayed again. Information about L.A. Noire was minimal until GameInformer chose L.A. Noire to be its front cover game in March 2010. Team Bondi released a trailer for L.A. Noire, since there hasn't been any video footage of the game since a trailer released not long after the games original announcement showing actual in-game footage. Team Bondi released a new trailer for the game about the Red Lipstick murder and a few weeks later, another trailer about The Naked City pre-order exclusive was shown and the technology behind MotionScan, the technology used to capture the facial movements of the game. Team Bondi have also released 2 Gameplay series trailers since then, the first look at actual gameplay. Gameplay series Orientation shows basic gameplay mechanics such as fighting, interviewing and searching for clues. Gameplay series Interrorgation and Investigation was based around two of some of the most important gameplay mechanics in the game, investigation and interrogation. L.A. Noire was released on the 17th May for North America and the 20th of May for the rest of the world. The Xbox 360 version of L.A. Noire consists of 3 discs; the PS3 version comes on a single Blu-ray disc. Technology L.A. Noire became famous due to the technology used for the game's development, a technology called MotionScan. MotionScan is a new performance capture technology and an alternative to traditional motion capture. It utilizes 32 high-definition cameras that completely surround the actor and capture the performance in 3D at 30 frames-per-second. MotionScan is a technology provided by Depth Analysis, a sister company to Team Bondi and part of a special partnership with Rockstar Games. Every character in L.A. Noire uses MotionScan technology and over 400 actors were filmed making the game. This new technology helped the game to be recognized around the world, and thanks to it, L.A. Noire is one of the most promising games of 2011. Trivia *L.A. Noire is heavily influenced by the film L.A. Confidential, using characters and locations similar to the movie. *"Noire" translates to "Black" in French. *When the player encounters the orange Neon sign reading "L.A. Noire" before loading the game, the letters L'', ''I, and E never flicker, spelling Lie, in that order. 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Noire fr:L.A. Noire de:L.A. Noire pl:L.A. Noire *